In the 20th century, the revival fire that had driven the robust expansion of U. S. Methodism began to die out. Methodist leadership, literature and educational institutions became increasingly liberal and humanistic. The message being declared was no longer a consistent church-wide declaration of the infallible authority of the Bible nor of the deity of Christ, His virgin birth, sinless life, bodily resurrection and second coming. The imperative of a personal religious experience, including the “new birth” and “sanctification” [the spirit filled life], was quietly dropped as a requisite for church leadership or even membership. Methodism in the USA stagnated and no longer grew as a church.
In such a dismal spiritual climate the Evangelical Methodist Church, an authentic Methodist movement, was born in 1946. Most of the early leaders were from the Methodist Church.